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Check In to Maximized Credit Card Rewards With Glyph

Glyph is a free iPhone app that helps users maximize their credit card rewards by offering up per-transaction guidance during the purchasing process.

The app’s most recent update, which went live in the iTunes App Store on Wednesday, now supports more cards from an expanded list of banks — with nearly 300 cards from more than 20 U.S. banks — and enables users to link their bank accounts — alongside their credit cards — to track missed rewards and current balances. And for credit cards, users can now see each of their card’s utilization percentages, which is a key element in determining a consumer’s credit score.

Launched in November, Glyph aims to give users “Peace of Wallet,” says CEO and co-founder Mike Vichich. “[Which is] knowing that your financial interests are being looked after each time you buy.”

The app enables users to determine which credit card they should use during each transaction in order to maximize the rewards earned, whether those be via cash back incentives or any of the various hotel, travel, gasoline, or more general loyalty points programs. While the app previously only took physical locations into account, it can now guide users in their online shopping by determining which cards are best for Amazon and eBay purchases, for example.

The mobile app also recommends the very best credit card for a given purchase, even if the user doesn’t own that card, an educational tip for consumers and, of course, a way for Glyph to make money off of referral fees paid by credit issuers, such as Citi or Discover.

“In the future, we see opportunities to generate revenue on each transaction by providing transaction-level intelligence, in both the physical and digital commerce arenas,” says Vichich. That is, credit issuers would love to better track individual purchasing behaviors, and Glyph may be able to provide that intelligence in the near future.

Glyph also enables users to check in to venues via the app, where they can then push their checkins to Facebook and Foursquare, two popular location-based check-in platforms. Though, at this time, photo uploads and friend tagging options are not available, making the Glyph check-in process a bit bland.

Glyph’s check-in feature, though, is at least a move towards living the in-store experience all from one app. After all, who wants to pull out an app for checking in, an app for determining which credit card to use, and an app for scanning their rewards card? Show me the app that solves all of these issues, and I’ll show you at least one happy consumer. The next step towards fully integrating all of these functionalities, of course, is the reality of a totally digital wallet governed by smartphones.

“We believe that smartphones will replace plastic cards, but that it’ll take more than just a form factor change,” says co-founder and product lead Tyler Felous. “We believe the switch will happen because the smartphone is, well, smart. To give you a sense of our vision, we think that smartphones should automatically guide consumers to the card that’s best for them on each transaction — again based on maximizing rewards, reducing interest, or improving a credit score. Looking forward, though, we think that dynamically determining card benefits on each transaction would be advantageous for both consumers and banks.”

Glyph competitor Wallaby is currently betting on the in-between time, though, from what we have now, with the average credit cardholder owning between three and four cards in a physical wallet, to the vision of the future where everyone just uses their smartphones to make purchases. That in-between moment, Wallaby has determined, is the ability to use one intelligent card that, once swiped, automatically chooses the best card to charge in each transaction, based on the card holders preferences.

It’s still unforeseen as to which strategy — Wallaby’s or Glyph’s — is best suited for the landscape. For the meantime, though, Glyph has one more trick up its sleeve to lure users: A web app that helps users determine which cards are best for their consumption habits and rewards need.

“We’ve built a totally unique credit card discovery tool, the first of its kind,” says Felous. “Our algorithm analyzes each and every transaction a consumer has made on a card, and computes where they’ve missed rewards down to the dollars and cents. Based on this, we’ll report which credit cards best fill those gaps, allowing a user’s preferences to also be taken into account. Importantly, we never recommend cards with inferior or overlapping rewards, we only report the real dollars any card would add to your wallet.”

So, the app recommends a different card for “gas guzzlers” than it does for “roaming nomads,” based on the consumer’s previous purchasing behavior and the rewards that could have been earned based on those purchases, assuming the user will continue to shop with similar habits.

And if the web app doesn’t turn heads, Glyph has pimped out its iPhone app with more than 15 new wallet designs — including chevron, polk-a-dot, and snakeskin. Fuchsia floral? Yes, please.

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